MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr on Monday received in Malacañang officials of Chinese government-owned construction firm China Communications Construction Co. Ltd. (CCCC)

Pictures posted by the Presidential Communications Office showed Marcos meeting with the firm’s officials led by its chairperson, Wang Tongzhou.

“Naging pagkakataon ang pagbisita ng CCCC para pag-usapan ang mga proyektong pang-imprastraktura sa bansa at paglalatag ng mga plano sa iba pang proyektong pang-agrikultura,” the PCO said in a statement.

“Ang CCCC ay nakabase sa Beijing, China na nasa ilalim ng pangangasiwa ng State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) ng pamahalaan ng People's Republic of China.”

During the meeting, CCCC officials proposed to build a 270-kilometer highway project connecting Laoag City and Rosario, Batangas, as well as the introduction of China’s Juncao technology—a hybrid of the Giant Napier Grass—to the Philippines.

Once approved, the Juncao project would be funded through Chinese foreign aid, Malacañang said in a statement.

CCCC officials also updated Marcos on its other ongoing infrastructure projects in the country, including the Samal Island-Davao City Connector (SIDC) Project and North & South Harbor Bridge, among others.

Marcos, for his part, said that his administration's economic policy is the establishment, endorsement, and promotion of private-public partnerships, in which the CCCC could also participate in.

“It can be of any nature – commercial venture or joint venture with a local partner. Of course, the PPP, where you have partnership with government, even G2G—government-to-government arrangements—are also something that we have been doing for a long time and again that we wish to further,” Marcos also said.

The Chinese state-owned CCCC mainly engages in transportation infrastructure projects such as roads, bridges and railways.

It has more than 60 wholly owned subsidiaries and has operated in more than 150 countries and regions, Malacañang said.

In August 2020, the United States blacklisted CCCC and 23 other Chinese companies and associated officials for taking part in building artificial islands in disputed waters in the South China Sea.

Senator Risa Hontiveros called on the government of then-President Rodrigo Duterte to scrap its deals with the blacklisted firms, but the government said the sanctioned Chinese firms can continue doing business in the Philippines,

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